Simon Jude – Environmental decision making research

I’m Reader in Environmental Decision Making, based at Cranfield Environment Centre at Cranfield University. 

The complex interactions between the environment, infrastructure, and society, and the decision-making challenges and opportunities that they pose, form the basis for my research. My interest in such issues stems from my time working with organisations ranging from Government departments to utilities and their regulators for example, and my time in industry.  

Many of these issues represent ‘wicked problems’, requiring new approaches to decision-making.  To address this, my research seeks to develop and evaluate new techniques, tools, and technologies to support improved decision-making. This involves working with researchers from a wide range of disciplines, including environmental science, economics, engineering, computing and mathematics, and includes the use of mixed quantiative/qualitative methods and post-normal science approaches.

My work is highly stakeholder led and inter/transdisciplinary, and broadly focuses on a number of areas:

Climate risk, adaptation and resilience – Understanding and overcoming risk, adaptation and resilience challenges, including those facing organisations, critical infrastructure operators and communities. A key area of interest is the need to understand new forms of green infrastructure in urban and coastal environments.

Developing urban observatories and living laboratories – Harnessing sensor technologies and analytics to better understand complex urban environments and aid decision-making.

Marine environmental risks – Understanding and managing the complex risks and trade-offs associated with climate change, marine renewable energy developments and marine spatial planning.

In terms of other activities, I’m a member of the Office for Environmental Protection’s College of Experts and the editorial board of the journal Cambridge Prisms: Coastal Futures.

Previous roles include leading the Decision Science Group, within Cranfield Environment Centre, and being a Co-Investigator and Cranfield Centre Manager for the Data, Risk and Environmental Analytical Methods (DREAM) Centre for Doctoral Training, which received funding from NERC and the ESRC. I also led the UKCRIC/EPSRC funded Cranfield University Urban Observatory.

Further details of my research can be found on my projects or Cranfield webpages.

I’m always looking for new research collaborations and my contact details are available via my Cranfield webpage.